By Tia Lyons
Staff Writer
EL DORADO — Winter is typically a slow period for many outdoor activities, including golfing.
To help stimulate play during the cold weather months this year, Lions Club Municipal Golf Course will offer discount rates for golfers.
During an El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds meeting on Tuesday, commission chairman David Hurst announced that a special rate will apply to green fees to help boost play during the winter, with hopes that the trend will continue through the spring and summer of 2017.
“Hopefully, we’ll get four or five more people there in the winter. The money is fine, but if they see how nice the course is, maybe next spring they’ll come back and bring more people with them,” Hurst said.
Pro shop staff member, Gage Parker said green fees will be 50 percent off each Friday, starting on Nov. 4 and ending on Feb. 24.
Regular green fees are:
• $17, 18-hole weekday.
• $20, 18-hole weekend.
• $10, nine-hole weekday.
• $13, nine-hole weekend.
• $8.50, senior 18-hole.
• $5.50, senior nine-hole.
• $8.50, junior 18-hole.
• $5.50, junior nine-hole.
Additionally, an early-bird special will be available to golfers who tee off before 10 a.m. each day and play 18 holes this winter.
Golfers will be able to take $3 off their daily total. The early-bird special may be coupled with half-price green fees each Friday during the specified period, Parker said.
Golf pro Mike Hoelzer reported last month that overall play is down for the year at Lions Club,
explaining that the lower numbers were especially noticeable during the prime playing months of July and August.
Hoeler said then that rainy weather affected play for 17 days in August and scorching summer temperatures kept golfers away in July.
Hoelzer, parks and playgrounds commissioners and city officials have been discussing ways to market and promote LCMGC to attract more golfers there.
Hurst said the commission is also working with Hoelzer to find local businesses and industries to refresh sponsorships on the tee boxes and fairways to help generate more revenue at Lions Club.
In other business on Tuesday, Hurst said the city is still working to replace equipment that was damaged by a tree at the new dog park on the south end of Mitchell Park.
The tree fell several months ago, shortly after the park opened to the public, and took out a picnic table, pet fountain and a set of hoops that were part of the doggy agility circuit.
Plans also call for a new picnic table and bench to be installed underneath a small pavilion at the park, Hurst said.
Earlier this month, the parks and playgrounds commission issued a call for citizens to bring their pets to the park in order to promote the new facility.
Several pet owners brought their dogs to the park that day, and the event was highlighted in the News-Times’ Sunday Spotlight feature on Oct. 16.
“One thing we kept hearing from the people who were out there that day was that we needed more benches so people can sit and watch their dogs play,” Hurst said, adding that city officials and the department of public works are acting on the recommendation.
“We hope to have the benches and the replacements for the equipment that was damaged pretty soon,” Hurst said, adding that work is also planned to repair the entrance gate of the pet enclosure.
Commissioner Steve Harrell said efforts are continuing to form an adult recreation league in El Dorado.
Harrell is part of an EPPC subcommittee that is working with the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado, who has agreed to operate and manage the league.
The committee includes Commissioner John Thomas Shepherd.
During the commission’s regular meeting in September, commissioners agreed to throw their support behind plans for the boys and girls club to ask the city for additional funding to assist with the formation and operation of the league.
The city already contracts with the BGCE each year to provide youth recreational services, since there is no organized parks program in El Dorado.
“We hope to have more to report in (coming) months,” Harrell said.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.